A Brief History
On December 21, 1936, the German concept of a “schnellbomber” that could outrun most fighter planes took to the air when the prototype Junkers Ju-88 made its first flight, achieving a speed of 360 mph. Today, we look at the major belligerents of WWII and their most produced 2 engine bomber, leaving you to tell us which one was best.
Digging Deeper
Germany, Junkers Ju-88: 15,183 were built with a 290 mph, top speed and 3100 lbs of bomb capacity internal, plus 3000 lbs of bombs external. Defense was provided by 5 x 7.92mm machine guns
Britain, Vickers Wellington: 11,461 were built with a 235 mph top speed and 4500 lbs of bomb capacity. Defense was provided by 6 or 8 .303 caliber machine guns.
USA, North American B-25 Mitchell: 9,816 were built with a 272 mph top speed and a 3000 lbs of bomb capacity. Offensive and defensive firepower included up to 18 .50 caliber machine guns, or also a 75mm cannon.
Japan, Mitsubishi G4M: 2,435 were built with a top speed of 266 mp and, about 2000 lbs of bombs capacity. Defensie was provided by 1 x 20mm cannon and 4 x 7.7mm machine guns.
USSR, Petlyakov Pe-2: 11,430 were built with a 360 mph top speed and 2205 lbs of bomb capacity. Defense was only 3 or 4 x 7.62mm or 12.7mm machine guns.
Italy, just to be different, used 3 engine bombers!
Question for students (and subscribers): Which WWII twin engine bomber was the best? Please let us know in the comments section below this article.
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Historical Evidence
For more information, please see…
Goss, Chris. Junkers Ju 88: The Early Years: Blitzkrieg to the Blitz. Frontline Books, 2016.
Nijboer, Donald. Air Combat 1945: The Aircraft of World War II’s Final Year. Stackpole Books, 2015.
The featured image in this article, a photograph by Rompel of a Ju 88A over France in 1942, is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Germany license.
You can also watch video versions of this article on YouTube.